Cell phones head to class

By Jennifer R. Lloyd - Express-News :
August 16, 2010

Drivers may not be allowed to hold a cell phone and chatter while wheeling through a school zone, but at least two area districts have decided to welcome the mobile devices indoors for students to use for educational purposes.

While most area school districts maintain policies that ban students from using cell phones on campus, a few districts are breaking the mold and beginning to admit smart phones into the classroom as an educational tool on a par with a classroom computer.

Though some may think the change will invite distraction, inappropriate texting or cyber bullying into study sessions, others see the move as a way to teach technological skills while addressing those negative issues head-on.

Alamo Heights Independent School District recently changed its policy to allow students to bring personal electronic devices — laptops, iPads and smart phones — to use for educational purposes at the discretion of the teacher. It's backing that policy change with content-filtered, districtwide Wi-Fi access for such devices.

Alamo Heights is one of only a few San Antonio locations where such a policy is in place. North East Independent School District also will implement a more flexible cell phone policy this fall.

“We're in an era where the state is piloting online testing. We're looking at online textbooks. We're teaching digital citizenship,” said Alicia Thomas, NEISD's associate superintendent for instructional and technology services. “So we're looking at our instruction to be sure it's really aligned with what students are going to need now and in the future.”

But many school districts, including Northside, San Antonio and Judson, have much stricter policies that direct students to turn phones off and keep them stowed during school.

Committees at both Alamo Heights and NEISD began discussing cell phone policy shifts last spring. NEISD's Design and Technology Academy, a magnet program at Roosevelt High School, was ahead of the curve in beginning to incorporate cell phones into instructional use last year, said Stacia FitzSimon, director of the academy. For instance, teachers took students into the courtyard so they could snap digital photos with phones that represented aspects of geometry.

Classroom-level decision making sparked the change at Alamo Heights, said Jennifer Faulkner, Alamo Heights' director of instructional and information technology.

“The students are expecting immediate answers and, if we don't always have a room full of computers and they do have answers right there in their pockets, it's sad for us to say, ‘I know it's there and you can't (use it),'” Faulkner said. “Some teachers were saying, ‘OK, you can look that up on your phone and I'll stand right here and watch you.'”

Rather than having kids “power down” when they walk into school, Faulkner envisions a seamless use of technology during the day. In a district such as Alamo Heights, where 90 percent of students have said they have both a computer and Internet access at home, seamless use may be within reach. Holly Eaton, director of professional development and advocacy for the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, isn't surprised that some districts are changing their policies.

“The use of technology in the classroom is really being pushed at a lot of different levels,” Eaton said. “It's becoming increasingly difficult to have situations where you have one type of technology that's allowable and another type that's not.”

Eaton said that from a teacher's perspective, cell phones have always brought with them the risk of classroom disruption, as well as cheating on tests. In order to combat those risks, and also the potential for “sexting” or cyber bullying, Eaton recommends that districts have clear guidelines about appropriate use of technology — something both Alamo Heights and NEISD either have in place or are developing.

“There's so much misuse of cell phones and devices, that instead of keeping them in this little safe bubble from 8:30 to 3:30, let's talk about it,” Faulkner said.